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Lion King & Hip-Hop Boyz Extend London Bookings

Two London musicals - Disney's West End blockbuster The Lion King and 'new kid on the block' Da Boyz at Theatre Royal Stratford East - have extended their booking periods.

Disney's long-running The Lion King has added another six months to its season at the Lyceum Theatre, where it is now taking bookings up to 28 March 2004. The musical, based on the hit animated film, has songs by Elton John and Tim Rice and is housed at the Lyceum Theatre, its home since 1999.

Meanwhile, in east London at the fringe Theatre Royal Stratford East, the limited season for Da Boyz, which opened on 7 May 2003 (previews from 24 April), has been extended by a fortnight to 14 June. Da Boyz - one of top hip-hop musical versions of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors that opened in London this month (the other being the West End's The Bomb-itty of Errors; See News, 7 May 2003) - is a remake of Rodgers and Hart's 1938 musical comedy The Boys from Syracuse.

The new show has been adapted by DJ Excalibah, Dirty Diggers' MC Skolla and Ultz and features numerous British urban music stars. Though Rodgers and Hart's classic numbers such as "Sing for Your Supper" and "Falling in Love with Love" are still recognisable to fans of the original, the music for Da Boyz is placed firmly in east London 2003, through hip-hop, R&B, bashment and garage remixes.

Directed by Ultz and with music mixed on stage by DJ Excalibah, Da Boyz is performed by a 30-strong cast of up-and-coming rappers and street dancers, assisted by urban music stars like Kyza, Kat and Mystro with others including Rodney P, Ricochet Klashnekoff and Demolition Man due to make special guest appearances.

- by Terri Paddock

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